No-Mess Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats or Hot Cereal

Steel Cut Oats are wonderful ways to start your day, but they take time. With steel cut oats, you’re looking at 10 to 20 minutes on the stove top. It’s very hard to fit that into a busy morning, but we have good news! You can make steel cut oats while you sleep using your slow cooker and wake up to deliciously creamy breakfast. Honestly, I haven’t had oatmeal that was this creamy. There is something to be said for waking up and having breakfast ready for the whole family without having to lift a finger.

There are posts all over the internet for making slow cooker oatmeal, but no one mentions what a horrible mess it is to clean up! Maybe it’s a given than slow cookers make for a lot of clean up, but I was blissfully unaware of the mess that awaited after I tried my first batch.

It wasn’t a total nightmare and a good soak worked wonders, but I wanted to see if anything could be done to prevent the sticky mess. I am not interested in the slow cooker liners, though I am sure they work great. I read tips about using a water bath method (which looks like a great solution) and different ways to grease the crock pot. I tried a few different methods and this is what worked for me. This worked with oatmeal and with hot cereal. Slow cookers vary wildly in their settings and temperatures, so I am including two options below- the tried and true method and the no-mess method I devised for my particular slow cooker. My slow cooker has a warm setting for holding foods and it works perfectly (with no mess) if you start with boiling water and let it sit overnight. If you don’t have that setting (low is not the same setting), use the tried and true method and enjoy the creamiest oats you’ve ever had.

A note about using steel cut oats versus regular rolled oats or hot cereal. I tried these methods with our granular hot cereals (10 Grain, 7 Grain, Mighty Tasty, etc) and they work just fine using the same proportions of water to cereal. I did not try using a rolled oatmeal and cannot vouch that this will work the same way.

No-Mess Method

1 cup Steel Cut Oats or granular hot cereal of your choice

4 cups boiling Water*

1/4 tsp Salt (optional)

Coconut Oil or Cooking Spray

Coat slow cooker bowl with coconut oil or cooking spray (butter will likely work, but I did not try it). Add 1 cup of oats or cereal of your choice, salt and 4 cups of boiling water. Set slow cooker to warm and allow to cook for 7-8 hours. When done, stir and top with your choice of toppings.

Tried and True Method

1 cup Steel Cut Oats or granular hot cereal of your choice

4 cups Water*

Coconut Oil or Cooking Spray

1/4 tsp Salt (optional)

Coat slow cooker bowl with coconut oil or cooking spray (butter will likely work, but I did not try it). Add 1 cup of oats or cereal of your choice, 4 cups of water and salt. Set slow cooker to low and allow to cook for 7 hours. When done, stir and top with your choice of toppings.

*If you prefer, you can replace some of the water with milk. For the No-Mess method, do not boil the milk, but warm it until almost boiling.